Mimi McCann ’14: A recent journal from the American Academy of Neurology noted that abuse of ADHD medication in the US is on the rise. Other data shows that college and high school campuses have become havens for use of the addictive and often abused ADD/ADHD medication, Adderall.
Adderall, an amphetamine based prescription drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has become popular on college campuses in the past few years. According to the U.S. Drug and Enforcement Agency, “Amphetamines are stimulants that speed up the body’s system,” or, in other words, help students focus harder for longer. However, there’s a tradeoff. Adderall and other such amphetamines are dangerous, addictive and illegal without a prescription.
Campus Safety, a monthly magazine for school administrators, warned, “Children who do not have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should not be given Ritalin, Adderall and other ADHD medications so they can improve their study habits.”
Kristin Greenwood ‘12, a freshman at the University of Chicago, stated, “Selling and taking Adderall in college is very common and people are very open about it… almost anyone can get ADD pills whenever they want.” She admitted that there were always a few students in high school who would take pills on occasion to cram for a test or to write a paper, but noted that “college is a higher strung environment than high school, so there’s an even greater temptation.”
Greenwood stated that at the University of Chicago taking Adderall without prescription is “not really frowned upon by students. I personally would never take it but I know plenty of people who do.”
In a national survey on drug use and health conducted in 2012, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that full-time college students were twice as likely to have used Adderall in the past year than non-full time college students.
Yet students often overlook the consequences of taking amphetamines without a diagnosis and a prescription. Adderall is a DEA Controlled Substance, meaning that it is a “habit-forming” drug, and is subject to abuse. According to the DEA, “Amphetamines are Schedule II stimulants, which means that they have a high potential for abuse and limited medical uses.” Other Schedule II drugs include cocaine, opium and morphine.
Side effects that come with taking Adderall include “increased blood pressure and pulse rates, insomnia, loss of appetite, and physical exhaustion,” according to the DEA. These side effects can be dire when the drug is abused or taken by someone not diagnosed with an attention disorder. Chronic abusers have reported violent and erratic behavior and symptoms of psychosis.
However, despite these facts, Greenwood contends “college kids don’t think it’s any worse than drinking coffee to stay awake.” She continued, “People look at it as just something that helps you get a good grade.”
Similarly, Chloé Vadot ’12 stated, “When I visited Lehigh, people thought of it like ‘Oh I have to study, I’m gonna take some Adderall.”
Aside from the medical consequences, buying or selling even just one Adderall pill without a prescription is a federal crime. As Greenwood noted, “People don’t always understand that buying the drugs without prescription is illegal, they think of it as just a thing that everyone else does.”
The New York Times reported that psychiatry professor Dr. Raymond Kotwicki of Emory University stated that amphetamines “might produce euphoria, they might temporarily make it easier… but in the long run there are significant problems both in terms of thinking, mood problems, maybe even functionality.”
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